DIGITAL MAP OF THE SUBMARINE PERMAFROST DISTRIBUTION IN THE BARENTS AND KARA SEAS
G.E. Oblogov, A.A. Vasiliev, R.S. Shirokov
Tyumen Scientific Center, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Earth Cryosphere Institute, Tyumen, Russia
Keywords: digital map, submarine permafrost, submarine permafrost top, Barents Sea, Kara Sea, rate of the submarine permafrost degradation
Abstract
Based on the interpretation of high-resolution seismoacoustic profiles and borehole drilling data in the Barents and Kara Seas, a GIS database was developed, and a digital map of the distribution and depth of the top of submarine permafrost in the Barents and Kara Seas was constructed. In the southwestern and northeastern parts of the Kara Sea, the submarine permafrost boundary partially coincides with the morphostructure of the denudation-tectonic slope of the seafloor. Three regions with significantly different depths of the top of the submarine permafrost were identified on the shelf. On the Barents Sea shelf, the average depth of the submarine permafrost top is (13.3 ± 6.6) m; in the southwestern part of the Kara Sea, (16.7 ± 8.1) m; in the northeastern part, (29.5 ± 15.5) m. The average rate of the subsidence of the submarine permafrost top in the Holocene is 8.2 mm/yr for the Barents Sea and 5.5 mm/yr for the Kara Sea.
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